The honest comparison

HDL Commerce
vs WooCommerce

We'll give it to you straight. Here are the differences, line by line — cost, features, operations and the time it takes to go live. You decide.

H
HDL CommerceComposable SaaS
VS
W
WooCommerceWordPress plugin
Feature
HDL Commerce Composable SaaS
WooCommerce WordPress plugin
License model
Fixed, predictable subscription
Free plugin — but paid add-ons
Operations & hostingWho is responsible?
Included and managed for you
Your own/your agency's responsibility
Upgrades
Continuous, automatic
Plugin updates can conflict
Security & patches
Handled continuously
Your responsibility, plugin vulnerabilities
B2B (pricing, contracts, quotes)
Built in
Requires paid add-ons
PIM — product information
Built in
Third-party plugins
Multichannel & markets
Built in
Limited, via plugins
Headless storefront
API-first from the start
Possible but heavy
Ready-made connectorsERP, payments, shipping
200+ ready to go
Via plugins (quality varies)
Open APIsREST & GraphQL
Versioned & stable
REST API available
Custom development possible
Open APIs & webhooks
Open source (PHP)
Data access & export
No lock-in
Your own database
Time to launch
Days–weeks
Fast to start, costly to run
Support in Swedish
Nordic team
Community/agency
Uptime & SLA
99.3% in Sweden
Depends on hosting

The comparison reflects a typical Nordic mid-sized merchant with B2B and B2C needs. WooCommerce and WordPress are trademarks of Automattic and the WordPress Foundation respectively.

Total cost of ownership

Count the whole bill, not just the license.

WooCommerce is free to start with — but the cost shifts to hosting, add-ons, security and operations. Here's the honest picture.

HDL Commerce

One predictable price

up to 40% lower TCO
  • Platform, operations, security and updates included
  • No license fees per order or GMV
  • Ready-made integrations — fewer consultant hours
  • Zero upgrade projects over time
WooCommerce

Cheap to start, expensive to run

Plugin stack
  • Hosting, CDN and security are your responsibility
  • Paid add-ons for B2B, PIM and performance
  • An agency for maintenance and updates
  • Performance and security risk at scale
Migration

Switching from WooCommerce? We do the heavy lifting.

Our migration team moves products, customers, orders and URLs for you — with SEO preserved and a controlled, step-by-step transition. Free migration analysis included.

1

Analysis

We map your WooCommerce store, plugins and integrations. You get a clear plan.

2

Migration

Catalog, customers, orders and content move over. 301 redirects preserve your SEO.

3

Integrations

We connect ERP, payments and shipping with ready-made connectors — not custom code.

4

Live

We go live together, monitor the launch and run operations from there.

Common questions

What you're wondering before a switch

Do we have to rebuild everything from scratch?+

No. We migrate your existing catalog, customer data and orders. The storefront is built on our headless foundation, but you keep your content, your URLs and your SEO.

How long does a migration take?+

Most merchants are live in a few weeks rather than months. The exact timeline depends on the number of integrations and how customized your current setup is — the free analysis gives you the answer.

What happens to our WooCommerce plugins?+

Most of what you solve with plugins in WooCommerce is built into HDL Commerce — B2B pricing, PIM, performance and multichannel. For the rest, we have ready-made integrations or open APIs.

Do we own our data?+

Always. Your data is yours. Open APIs and lock-in-free export mean you can take everything with you, whenever you want.

Where is the platform hosted?+

In Sweden, on green infrastructure, GDPR-safe and with 99.3% uptime — a higher SLA is available as an add-on. We handle operations, security and updates.

Next step

See the difference for yourself.

Book a demo with our commerce architects. We'll show you the platform and run your TCO numbers against WooCommerce.